Search form

11 Questions With Jason Leopoldo

Senior midfielder Jason Leopoldo answers 11 questions in a new soccer feature on UCLABruins.com. Leopoldo earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors in 2007 and was named to the 2006 College Cup All-Tournament team. During his sophomore season in 2006, he ranked second on the team in goals (8) and game-winning goals (3) and was third on the squad with 21 points scored.

1. Who is the best soccer player in the game today?Cristiano Ronaldo

2. If you could trade places with anyone on your team, who would it be and why?Any of the incoming freshmen because I've loved my time here, and I wish I could start over again. Time flies when you're having fun.

3. Do you have any superstitions or pre-game/in-game rituals?I've never had any superstitions like putting my right shoe on before the other. The only thing I do every game right before the whistle blows is say a prayer for my health and the quality of my play and ask a couple friends of mine upstairs to watch over me.

4. Is there any special meaning to your uniform number?I've almost always worn #2 because of the way AYSO handed out uniforms. They always had small sizes for the lower numbers and larger sizes for the higher numbers, and of course I was the smallest on all my teams, so therefore my coach always handed me #2.

5. What was the best soccer game you've ever seen?Probably the Liverpool vs. AC Milan game from 2005, when Liverpool was down 3-0 at half and came back and won 4-3. But if you consider a game I watched one that I watched and participated in, then I would definitely say our game at Duke in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament in 2006.

6. My hidden talent is ...Bowling. I actually have a bowling ball that resembles a soccer ball. The last two times I went, I bowled a 242 and a 240. Not too bad.

7. Of the four languages you speak, which was the easiest to learn, and which was the hardest to learn?Easiest was definitely Portuguese because I don't remember learning it and it was my first ... Haha. French, on the other hand, was the hardest because it is always harder to learn something later on in life, and I got a lot of the French words mixed up with Portuguese and Spanish because they are sometimes alike.

8. What is the best soccer movie?The Big Green ... by far.

9. Who is your favorite athlete in another sport?Kobe Bryant. I'm a huge Laker fan and loved getting into arguments with Brad (Rusin) about who should get MVP because he hates Kobe.

10. You list your hobbies as snowboarding and surfing. Which one is the bigger rush?Snowboarding is definitely the bigger rush. You can control how fast you go, and it is much more dangerous than surfing because the snow hurts much more if you fall as compared to water.